Earlier this week, a judge in the United Kingdom ruled that Samsung's Galaxy Tabtablet computers do not infringe on Apple's design -- in the process, offering an aesthetic judgement that quickly reverberated across several time zones.

"Samsung products are very thin, almost insubstantial members of that family with unusual details on the back," Judge Colin Birss wrote in his decision. "They do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design. They are not as cool. The overall impression produced is different."

The judge's turn of phrase is likely not going to wind up as a marketing description that Samsung will be keen to embrace. ("Buy Samsung. We're not cool enough to be an Apple knockoff!") What's more, the two day trial also won't be the final word in this dispute, which is being litigated in several other countries. Samsung has argued all along that its tablets do not infringe while Apple obviously does not agree.

Still, cool is in the eye of the beholder and we'll leave it up to you to decide whether Judge Birss has a case, no pun intended.

About the author

Charles Cooper was an executive editor at CNET News. He has covered technology and business for more than 25 years, working at CBSNews.com, the Associated Press, Computer & Software News, Computer Shopper, PC Week, and ZDNet.
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